


The Hand We've Been Dealt

by KrisseyCrystal (AisukuriMuStudio)



Series: Sormik Week 2017 [2]
Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Murder Mystery, Sormik Week 2017, a little bit of Eizen/Zaveid if u squint, oh and a bit of euchre that too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-06 01:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11590497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AisukuriMuStudio/pseuds/KrisseyCrystal
Summary: “You don’t think this hurts me, too? I can’t let you on the team because you’re toocloseto him, Mikleo.Andyou knew the victim, as well. If anything, you’d just be asking to be made a suspect, too.”“Sorey wouldn’t kill Mason,” Mikleo tried to protest. “He wouldn’t hurt a damnflyand you and I both know that. Just let me prove it.”Sormik Week 2017 - Day 2: Ladylake, Conflict/Trust





	The Hand We've Been Dealt

“Spades.”

Sorey looked down at his cards and huffed.

“ _Spades_?” Rose repeated; her jaw dropped to the table. “You’re sure? _That’s_ what you want to call?”

“Hey,” Mikleo defended himself, pressing his cards into his chest and leaning back in his chair. “You had your turn to call something. But no, you decided to stick it to me. So be prepared to reap what you’ve sown, Rose. It’s spades.”

Sorey wasn’t sure Mikleo and him would be able to reap much of anything at this point. He only had one card that was going to be helpful this round and that was it.

Rose leaned back in her chair, too, keeping her cards from being seen by the amethyst-eyed young man beside her. She laughed. “Oh, no, I wasn’t saying it like I was _worried_ ,” she crooned. She pulled out her ace of hearts and laid it down triumphantly. “With only a point left for either team, you _do_ remember who’s leading now after you’ve dealt, right?”

Sorey sighed and followed suit with a ten, as did Lailah with a nine. Lastly, Mikleo placed his queen with a sour look on his face.

Rose crowed in delight, pulling the trick. Lailah clapped.

“One down!” Lailah cheered.

“Two more to go!” Rose proudly placed another ace into the center of the table. Diamonds. “I can taste victory now, Lailah!”

Sorey placed his jack and Lailah her nine. Mikleo trumped it. He had too sly of a grin on his face as he placed his nine of spades over their small pile and then dragged it right out from under Rose’s shocked face. He lifted the cards, tapped the side of them against the table and placed them down neatly before him.

“What was that about leading?” he chided, cheeky.

Rose huffed, her face tinged with red. “Yeah, well, let’s see how you do on this next trick, _bucko._ ”

They went back and forth. Mikleo managed to keep control for another round before Rose took the next trick. With one final trick left to go for the point, Mikleo could only feel dismay as he looked down at the ace of spades in his hand and the left bower Rose laid down with a proud, “Betcha don’t have the _right_ now, do ya?”

He didn’t.

He bit the inside of his cheek, face flushing in embarrassment.

He really didn’t have the right bower.

But…

He raised his eyes to Sorey’s own. Sorey looked back. And when he saw the reassuring look his partner was giving him, Mikleo couldn’t help but feel ease spread throughout him. He nodded and Sorey winked back to him with something unspoken.

Sorey grinned and stood up.

“Hey, Rose—is _this_ the card you’re talking about?”

Rose’s eyes snapped to the brunette and the final card he held out, the corner of it brushing against her thumb.

The jack of spades.

Rose spluttered. Her face reddened. “W- _what_?”

Sorey laughed and scratched the back of his head with his free hand. “It’s the only good card I got. But right bower beats left, yeah?”

“But—!” Rose’s attention turned to the smug young man sitting cool and composed on her right. His arms were crossed over his chest, final card discarded towards the center of the table, right leg crossed over his left—like he hadn’t just been _sweating_ in his seat to see if he’d pull off this ridiculous stunt. “But then that means you hardly had any spades at all! What the hell were you even calling spades _for_?”

Mikleo shrugged a shoulder. “I had the ace and the nine. It was all I had that would even conceivably work. Besides, you _stuck_ me with calling it, remember? This is your own fault.”

_Be prepared to reap what you’ve sown._

Rose groaned and squatted before the table, propping her elbows up on the wooden edge and framing her forehead with her palms. “I swear, you two are _cheating_!”

Mikleo rolled his eyes.

Lailah hummed thoughtfully, watching her partner’s distress over their lost game. “Maybe Mikleo’s just terribly lucky?”

Sorey chuckled at that, cheeky. “We _all_ know it’s not that…”

“Hey!”

Lailah laughed and clasped her hands together as she turned to the brunette. “Oh, of course! That’s it,” she practically sang. “It’s must just be you too, then, isn’t it? You two always work so well together. I’d say it’s almost like magic. You two are the best pair of investigators our department has, after all!”

Sorey hummed and looked to Mikleo. Mikleo looked back at him.

Mikleo shrugged. “I mean, maybe; it might be something like that.” But being friends from birth probably didn’t hurt how well they paired up, either.

Sorey grinned.

 _Yeah._ Mikleo slowly grinned back.

“That secret’s ours to keep, I think,” Sorey said and Mikleo couldn’t agree more.

* * *

A week later Sorey was arrested for murder.

All of the evidence from the crime scene pointed to him, the investigators had said. No matter his spotless record, no matter the absence of a motive. It was his fingerprints, his gun, and his shoe print at the apartment that connected him to the scene. He had ties to the victim and was one of the last people to be in contact with him before his death. It was simple. It was sound.

It would be an open-and-shut case in court and Mikleo knew it.

He demanded to be part of the investigation team. He had marched right into the chief’s office, shut the door, crossed his arms and threatened to stay there until she let him on. But Alisha Diphda merely sighed and said, “You don’t think this hurts me, too? I can’t let you on the team because you’re _too close_ to him, Mikleo. _And_ you knew the victim, as well. If anything, you’d just be asking to be made a suspect, too.”

“Sorey wouldn’t kill Mason,” Mikleo tried to protest. “He wouldn’t hurt a damn _fly_ and you and I both know that. Just let me _prove_ it.”

Alisha refused.

A different tactic, then.

“Why don’t you just work the case on your own?” Edna had asked him in the break room, voice flat and matter-of-fact like it was the simplest matter in the world.

Mikleo’s eyes jumped to the faint reflection of the precinct’s civilian administrator in the window in front of him. The blonde young lady had sat herself on top of the table in the center of the room behind him with a lollipop stuck proudly in her mouth. Her hands pressed behind her flat into the wooden surface.

Mikleo lowered his eyes quickly, returning to the cup of coffee he was still preparing. He ripped open another bag of sugar. “What case?”

Edna rolled her eyes. “You _really_ think you have _all day_ to be playing this game, Mikleo? Your boyfriend’s not gonna see the light of day again if you don’t pick up your pace. It’s _obvious_ you want to help him. So help him.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, ‘cuz that was _totally_ the most important thing I just said.” Edna slid from the table and walked over with overlarge booted steps. She gave a great crunch with her teeth before pulling the empty lollipop stick out from her mouth and dropping it into the trash can.

Mikleo sighed and pressed the heels of both hands to the counter on either side of his coffee mug. “Edna, I can’t go against direct orders.”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“You’ll tell your brother—and he’s one of the ones _working_ the case.”

“Exactly.”

Edna said it so plainly, so directly, that at first, Mikleo wasn’t certain what she was getting at.

Mikleo looked at her. He blinked and frowned. “Yeah. That’s my point.”

“No, that’s _my_ point.” Edna turned to him and crossed her arms over her chest.

Mikleo stared at Edna and Edna stared back.

Finally, the short blonde sighed. “Look. If I spell it out for you, will it finally get through that thick skull of yours? My brother’s working the case that decides whether your boyfriend—“

“—not my boyfriend—“

“— _god,_ you’re so unbearable.” Edna’s voice strained as she rolled her head. “Can’t you just shut up and listen for once, Meebo?” She only pulled that name when she was especially irritated. Funny how that seemed like every damn day in the precinct. “All of the evidence for Sorey’s case, all of the theories, all of the paperwork—it’s all going through _my brother._ If, say, he were to suddenly find a lead among his info that could prove Sorey was _innocent…_ ”

Mikleo narrowed his eyes at her. “…are you…” he began, slowly and carefully to make sure he wasn’t misunderstanding her. It was so easy to misunderstand Edna. “…are you offering to _help_ me?”

“No,” Edna said quickly. “I’m just saving myself from losing a bet about the two of you finally hooking up; I can’t win against Rose if one of you’s in jail, now, can I?”

“There’s a bet—?” No. You know what? No. He was too tired for this shit by this point, and he hadn’t even finished making his coffee yet. Mikleo reached up a hand and dragged it down his face. “You know what? Fine. I’ll take your help. But as long as you promise I won’t get in trouble for it.”

Slowly, a wide grin spread across Edna’s face.

“Meebo, Meebo, Meebo. Now where’s the fun in that?”

* * *

The next day, Zaveid reached over to turn off the recorder. He settled back in his seat across from a handcuffed Sorey Shepherd and reached into the inside of his sports jacket. Eizen, standing behind his investigation partner and to the side in the corner of the dimly-lit interrogation room, shifted his weight.

“By the way,” Zaveid muttered and pulled out a small plastic card. “This is gonna be completely off-the-record, but…your boy Mickey wanted us to show you this.” He held it out for Sorey to see.

Sorey leaned forward, craning his neck. In an instant, he couldn’t help the wave of relief that washed over him.

“Got any idea what it’s supposed to mean?”

Sorey blinked and shook his head quickly. “No, no idea.”

Zaveid watched him carefully for a beat, his eyes sharp and keen. Then he chuckled and put the card back in his pocket. “You’ve never been a very good liar, Shepherd.”

Sorey licked his lips but didn’t say a word.

He wouldn’t dare betray Mikleo like that.

“So you know what it means, but won’t tell us, huh?” Zaveid smattered a chuckle as he stood up. “Typical Sorey and Mikleo for you, eh, Eizen?”

Eizen grunted but said nothing more, an unreadable look on his face.

Zaveid smiled thinly as he gathered the items of his case file back together. Sorey bit the inside of his cheek and watched. When he was ready, Zaveid gave a quick nod to Eizen and turned to go.

Then he stopped.

For a moment, the long-haired investigator looked undecided, but then he seemed to resign himself to whatever fate he would call upon himself. He reached into his coat again and pulled out Mikleo’s card. He tossed it onto the table in front of Sorey.

“Here,” he said. “If it means that much to you, keep it. Maybe it’ll give you something to hold on to over the next couple of days. But just remember, you didn’t get it from me.”

“N-no, of course not,” Sorey quickly said, green eyes wide and grateful.

Zaveid shook his head and turned to walk out of the room, Eizen close on his heels.

Sorey looked back to the card and sighed. After a long moment, he pressed his elbows to the steel tabletop and clasped his cuffed hands together, pressing his thumb against his mouth. He prayed with open eyes to whatever seraphim were out there, that they were with Mikleo right now.

In the center of the steel table, face-up against the light, laid a jack of spades.

**Author's Note:**

> *aggressively throws in as many card analogies as possible* Man I love euchre.


End file.
